8 May 2015

Tour & Excerpt: Bittersweet

Bittersweet - The Faerie Song Trilogy #2

by Michele Barrow-Belisle

To save the Faery world and her mother’s life, Lorelei sacrificed everything, and the dangerous bargain she made in Nevermore had lasting repercussions. Now safely back in her own world, Lorelei seems the same to her highschool friends and her supernatural boyfriend. Yet love across dimensions is complicated, especially when an invisible Veil between the two worlds—the only bridge that links the pair, is sealing, threatening to separate Lorelei and Adrius forever.

Determined to find a solution, Lorelei resorts to using her new found powers. But when her friends succumb to the same mysterious illness that nearly took her mother’s life, Lorelei can’t help but wonder if her own dark magic is responsible.

Still, the nightmares from Nevermore continue their icy hold. Someone from Adrius’s past arrives, determined to destroy Lorelei’s world starting with those closest to her, and Lorelei is forced to choose between her family and friends and a love that was ill-fated from the start.

“So what’s your plan,
Lorelei?” He had a tight grip on my hand as we headed toward the abandoned
building.

I stopped walking and
looked up at him. “Well, for starters, I need to go in alone. And before you
protest, I have to remind you of what Peterson said. That might be why he was a
no-show last time.”

“I don’t care what he
said. There’s no way I’m letting you go in there alone.”

“I’ll be fine. Really.”

He huffed. “I’ve heard
that before.”

“I have to do this. It’s
the only way.”

He wasn’t happy about it,
but he gave a reluctant nod and released my hand. “I’m giving you five minutes
then I’m coming in after you.”

I didn’t tell him, but
it gave me a great deal of comfort knowing that. I stepped over the broken
glass doors, through the haze of dust into the place I was going to find my
great aunt. But unlike our last visit, this time, the front desk wasn’t vacant.
A pair of amber eyes gleaming in the dim light peered at me, moving steadily
closer until a full unsightly form appeared.

I froze. This wasn’t just
any derelict.

“Mmm. Something yummy,”
it said in a low hiss.

A goblin? Here, in my
world. This was a first. I stared, blinking to refocus in the dust he’d stirred
with his movement. Until now, the only supernatural beings who’d entered my
world were Adrius and Zanthiel. And of course Venus. But they were all here
because of me in one way or another. This was different. Goblins and other
lower creatures weren’t supposed to be able to pass through the veil. Yet here
one was, staring me down while black froth dripped from its jagged teeth.

I stepped to the side to
evade him, but the creature skirted around me, so I couldn’t pass. His glamour
would have fooled most into believing he was human, not an attractive human,
but human nonetheless. I could see otherwise. With the costume of magic
stripped away the gangly creature resembled the goblins more than it did the
fey. He had the body of a human male, but something about his appearance… his
black pupilless eyes, the pasty shade of his skin, the overpowering stench of
rotting leaves… Perhaps he was once a normal human and had been tortured and
twisted for centuries into something nearly undefinable. He wouldn’t be the
first, nor the last. Unless Peterson’s people got their way and they managed to
eradicate the co-mingling of fey and humans. I didn’t want to think about how
they planned to pull that off.

“I’m not here for you.
I’m looking for someone.”

“The one they call
Camilla, yesss?”

I stared hard at the
creature. What did he know about all of this?

“So, which room is she
being held in?” I tried to sound persuasive, authoritative… but that was a
mind-altering device best left to the elves. I was more than capable of fending
off a goblin, but finding one here in the back alley had thrown me more than a
little. Plus I wasn’t exactly armed. But we had agreed, I’d go to meet with
him, before we knew the him I’d be meeting was a goblin from the Unseelie
Shadow Court. He’d claimed to know of Camilla’s whereabouts, and I needed to
find her. I needed to get answers about what was going on once and for all, and
with any luck find a way to prevent the veil from sealing. And if things went
according to plan, I’d be able to break the curse binding Adrius to Venus and
free everyone from her wrath.

“I’ll tell you which
room whelp, after I gets what I’s wants.”

I pulled out an envelope
of bills. Not even sure how much Adrius had put in there. Enough to make most human miscreants salivate he’d said dryly. Not
sure what a goblin would think.

I had practiced enough
spells with Abby to know I could conjure one to weaken this creature, but I had
to be in touching distance. Not the best plan. I stepped back, trying to stay
out of his reach, but my back hit a brick wall behind me. To my left there was
a chain link fence and the locked door of the warehouse to my right. He glided
toward me, moving steadily closer until his chest pressed against mine.

Glancing at the envelope
with eyes as black as tar he sneered. "What I want, is you," he said
urgently. “Just need a lil taste, lovely.”

I sucked in a gasp of
air. “You don’t want me,” I assured him, shoving at his caved-in chest. “Even
goblins find me unsavory.” Craning my head to the side I searched wildly for
something, anything to double as a
weapon.

“I’ll make it quick.” He
sniffed me, then licked my face, running his sandpapery tongue up my cheek. “I
can be gentle,” he hissed as I shoved against his chest. I brought my leg up to
knee him in the groin, but his hand snaked down to push it back in place. Curse
their superhuman strength. The foul stench of him made it hard to get any air,
and the more I struggled, the less oxygen I had.

“Ah-ah, I thought we
agreed this was going to be nice.”

His knee slid between my
thighs. Panic raced through me. I started to call for help, but his hand
slapped over my mouth, slamming the back of my head against the brick.
Splinters of pain shot through my head. I squeezed my eyes shut, to dull the
ache. I bit down hard on his fingers, nearly gagging from the bitter taste. He
hissed and pulled his hand away from my mouth and clamped it around my throat.

“Listen, just let me go
and you won’t get hurt,” I rasped through his charred fingers choking off my
air. “You don’t want to hurt me. Let go and you can have what you want.”

I felt something stir
beneath my skin. A slow simmer that grew to a raging boil in a flash. With a
burst of force, I put my hands on its throat. The creature began to cough,
choking and sputtering black phlegm. He staggered back away from me. I ran toward
the door, but he recovered and flew in front of me to block my path. “I will
hurt you,” I said. My voice sounded dark, foreign, and when I spoke I felt cold
winds swirl around us.

A dreamer at heart, Michele Barrow-Belisle has always lived with one foot in this reality and one foot in another, one of her own imagining. So it follows that she would grow up to write about the characters from those enchanting worlds she knows and loves so well. A fan of all things romantic, her young adult novels are populated with scintillating witches, vampires and fey. Her bestselling debut book series Fire and Ice (Faerie Song Trilogy) was optioned for a major motion picture this year. Michele resides in southern Canada with her hubby and son who indulge her never-ending obsession with reading, writing and most importantly… chocolate.